What Does it Mean to Be an Athlete?
By Yael Averbuch, FC Kansas City Midfielder
For the majority of my teenage years and throughout my professional career I have been told by a number of coaches that I wasn’t “athletic.” It’s true, I will never be as fast as Heather O’Reilly over 40 yards or have the vertical jump of Meghan Klingenberg. Some of this has been determined by my DNA (hey parents, don’t feel too guilty when you read this!). But in the past couple of years, I’ve realized how detrimental this belief system has been to me as a player, and how perhaps I’m not truly as ‘athletically incompetent’ as I’ve been made to feel.
I’ve always believed that I’m capable of improving the athletic areas of my game by small margins, and that I can find ways to gain other advantages—by being efficient on the ball or having good positioning. But I spent a lot of time trying to prove people wrong, trying to show them that despite the major obstacle of lack of athleticism I could still play at the highest level.
Recently, there have been three major realizations that have literally changed how I feel about myself as a player. For anyone of you who is very passionate about what you do, and whose work is deeply tied to your feeling of self-worth, you will immediately understand why these three realizations are the greatest gifts I could have received.